Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-first Century

It is a great pleasure for me to address this conference today and to report on the progress that the IMF has made in meeting the strategic objectives of the Beijing Declaration.

I am pleased to say that much has changed since I joined the IMF as a young economist over twenty-five years ago. There has been a steady increase in the role of women both in national governments and the IMF. And the IMF is fully committed to further improving the diversity of its own staff, in particular the representation of women in professional grades and in senior management positions. While the basic mandate of the IMF, as set out in its Articles of Agreement, has remained unchanged, the focus has been broadened to ensure that all members of society, including women, benefit from the positive effects of sustainable, high quality growth. The evidence shows that this effort is already bearing fruit.

My comments today will focus primarily on achievements since the Fourth World Conference on Women, which was held in Beijing in September 1995.

The strategic objectives in the Beijing Platform for Action of particular importance to the IMF are those that call for action by the multilateral financial institutions:
· to "find effective development-oriented and durable solutions to external debt problems in order to help [governments] finance programs and projects targeted at development, including the advancement of women";
· to "seek and mobilize new and additional financial resources that are both adequate and predictable and . . . [to use] all available funding sources and mechanisms with a view to contributing towards the goal of poverty eradication and targeting women living in poverty";
· to "review the impact of structural adjustment on social development," and to "ensure that structural adjustment programs are designed to minimize their negative effects on vulnerable and disadvantaged groups and communities and to assure their positive effects on such groups and communities by preventing their marginalization in economic and social activities"; and
· to "take measures to ensure women's equal access to and full participation in power structures and decision-making," including through institutional mechanisms.

I would like to focus on some important aspects of the IMF's work in these four areas. A more detailed discussion of the IMF's involvement in social sector issues can be found in the papers that are available to conference participants.1 I will speak first about our policy advice and financial support for member countries, and then turn to what we are doing at the IMF to promote the participation of women in power structures and decision making.